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The Hill
02-08-2025
- Business
- The Hill
Sunday shows preview: Trump economy reverberates amid tariff uncertainty
President Trump's economy reverberated this week amid tariff uncertainty, the weak job report on Friday and the subsequent firing of the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) commissioner, Erika McEntarfer. The Department of Labor (DOL) on Friday reported that the U.S. added just 73,000 jobs in July. Additionally, the job numbers for May and June were adjusted downward, cutting down the original tally by 258,000. The country added 19,000 jobs in May and 14,000 in June, far below the original reports After the dismal jobs report, Trump ordered McEntarfer to be fired, accusing her of manipulating previous reports and vowing to find a replacement that will be 'much more competent and qualified.' On Thursday, the White House also announced that tariffs on dozens of nations would be implemented on Aug. 7, sending further shockwaves through the global trading system. The import taxes will range from the baseline 10 percent to as high as 41 percent. Trump raised the tariff rate for Canada to 35 percent. The administration also announced trade deals with countries such as Indonesia, the Philippines and South Korea, along with the European Union and the United Kingdom this week. White House National Economic Advisor Kevin Hassett will appear on both NBC's 'Meet The Press' and Fox News' 'Fox News Sunday' where he will likely discuss the latest on the administration negotiations with other countries over tariff deals and weigh in on the latest jobs report. On the foreign policy front, Trump's Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff and the U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee visited an aid-distribution spot in the Gaza Strip on Friday, as international outrage over the humanitarian situation in the enclave continues. Witkoff and Huckabee will brief the president about the situation, according to the White House, as Trump earlier this week acknowledged there's 'real starvation' in Gaza, striking a different position than Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has denied those claims. Gaza Humanitarian Foundation Executive Chairman Johnnie Moore will be on Fox News' 'Fox News Sunday,' where he will likely discuss the current flow of aid into Gaza administered by the U.S.-backed organization and weigh in on reports of Israeli military firing at Gazans seeking food at the aid distribution sites. Those and others topics are likely to be discussed on the upcoming Sunday Shows: NewsNation's 'The Hill Sunday': Democratic National Committee Chairman Ken Martin ABC's 'This Week': Former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers; former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and Doctors Without Borders USA CEO Avril Benoît. CNN's 'State of the Union': Colorado Gov. Jared Polis (D) and Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin. CBS' 'Face the Nation': New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham (D); U.S. trade representative Jamieson Greer; Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz; Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan and Canada's ambassador to the U.S. Kirsten Hillman. NBC's 'Meet the Press': White House national economic adviser Kevin Hassett and Sen. Alex Padilla (D). Fox News' 'Fox News Sunday': Hassett; Gaza Humanitarian Foundation executive chairman Johnnie Moore; father of co-pilot killed in DCA collision Tim Lilley and Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.).
The Hill
16-06-2025
- Politics
- The Hill
Chuck Todd: Trump ‘openly admitting that he's politicizing law enforcement
Political pundit Chuck Todd ripped President Trump on Sunday over his decision to direct U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to expand deportation efforts in cities run by Democrats. The president in a Truth Social post on Sunday urged ICE agents 'to do all in their power' to help reach the administration's mass deportation goals in certain large U.S. cities, as protests around the country grow in opposition to his immigration agenda. 'He's openly admitting that he's politicizing law enforcement,' Todd wrote in a post on the social platform X responding to the news. 'This will not help ICE's image because he's asking them to perform a political task.' Trump has argued for days that cities like Los Angeles would have 'burned to the ground' if he had not deployed federal troops to areas where protests against immigration enforcement activities have in some cases led to rioting and looting. The president and his allies have sought to blame Democrats for the ongoing controversy over immigration issues, with the president saying in his Truth Social post 'these, and other such Cities, are the core of the Democrat Power Center, where they use Illegal Aliens to expand their Voter Base, cheat in Elections, and grow the Welfare State, robbing good paying Jobs and Benefits from Hardworking American Citizens.' Todd, however, balked at Trump's assertions and suggested the president is setting a dangerous precedent. 'Throw in the decision to shield the red states from law enforcement and he's clearly hoping to provoke an angry response,' the former NBC News analyst and 'Meet The Press' moderator said. 'At a moment when we need a president to de-escalate, he does the opposite.'
The Hill
15-06-2025
- Politics
- The Hill
Rand Paul: ‘I've never liked the idea of' Trump Army parade
Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) said he 'never liked the idea' of President Trump's military parade, saying while he believes the president 'means well,' but the military parades he remembers growing up were Soviet or North Korean. 'I just never liked the idea of the parade because I grew up in the '70s and '80s and the only parades I can remember are Soviet parades for the most part or North Korean parades,' Paul said when asked about the parade on NBC's 'Meet The Press' on Sunday. 'And the parades I remember from our history were different.' Paul mentioned that previous U.S. military parades were 'rejoicing the end of war' and 'our soldiers coming home,' which 'absolutely ought to be commemorated and discussed every year' through Memorial Day and Veterans Day. 'But we never glorified weapons so much,' he added. 'And I know he means well. I don't think he means for any of this to be depicted in another fashion. But I'm just not a big fan.' The parade celebrating the 250th anniversary of the U.S. Army also fell on Trump's 79th birthday and featured military vehicles and members of the Army marching down Constitution Avenue. Many critics of the parade, including Paul, highlighted the cost of the parade, which reached upwards of $45 million. 'I mean, we're $2 trillion in the hole and just an additional cost like this, I'm not for it,' he said. The Kentucky Republican has repeatedly expressed opposition to Trump's tax cut and spending package, or the 'big, beautiful bill,' since its announcement. Last week, Paul was uninvited from the annual White House picnic in an apparent snub to his opposition. 'I just find this incredibly petty,' he said after being informed he was uninvited. 'I have been, I think, nothing but polite to the president.'
The Hill
15-06-2025
- Politics
- The Hill
Klobuchar on Minnesota shooter's motivation: There's ‘some throughline with abortion'
Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) said the deadly shooting of state Speaker Emerita Melissa Hortman (D) and her husband on Saturday was politically motivated, noting that there was some 'throughline with abortion' after his list of targets was found to include abortion advocates and facilities. 'Clearly, this is politically motivated,' she told NBC's 'Meet The Press' host Kristen Welker on Sunday when asked about a possible motive for the suspected shooter, who was identified as Vance Boelter, 57. He also shot state Sen. John Hoffman (D) and his wife, who were wounded. Klobuchar mentioned Boelter's list of targets, which was found in his car. The list included 'prominent pro-choice individuals in Minnesota, including many Democratic lawmakers who have been outspoken about pro-choice policy positions,' an official who has seen the list told The Hill's sister network NewsNation. 'It was politically motivated, and there clearly was some throughline with abortion because of the groups that were on the list, and other things that I've heard were in this manifesto. So that was one of his motivations,' she said. Klobuchar noted that investigators are also looking into any possible interaction between the lawmakers and Boelter prior to the shooting. 'But again, they're also checking out, did he have interaction somehow with these without legislators? Is there more to this?' she said. However, Klobuchar advised viewers not to speculate and let police 'do their jobs.' 'They obviously have information we don't have,' the Democratic Senator said. 'And so what we've been trying to do as political leaders is make really clear we will have plenty of time to analyze what happened here, but right now it is trying to report any sighting of this person, and to be very careful, and to listen to what law enforcement says. Because the advice has changed for obvious reasons over time. And that is what we have to do right now.' Her comments come after the FBI announced that it launched a manhunt for Boelter. Additionally, a $50,000 award is being offered for information leading to his arrest and conviction in the shooting.
Yahoo
03-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
GOP beats down key budget office over tax plan projections
Republicans are using Congress's official budget scorer as a whipping boy, as they argue a major package of President Trump's tax priorities is costless, despite multiple projections placing the plan's price tag at trillions of dollars over the next decade. While the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has not yet released its final estimate of House Republicans' 'One Big Beautiful Bill Act' as it advances on Capitol Hill, Republicans have increased attacks on the nonpartisan office over its cost projections of the party's tax cuts plan — which seeks to permanently lock in expiring provisions in Trump's 2017 tax plan, along with a host of other add-ons. 'The CBO sometimes gets projections correct, but they're always off every single time when they project economic growth,' Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) argued during an appearance on NBC's 'Meet The Press' on Sunday, asserting the bill 'is going to reduce the deficit.' 'They always underestimate the growth that will be brought about by tax cuts and reduction in regulations,' he said, while touting Trump's 2017 tax plan as bringing 'about the greatest economy in the history of the world, not just the U.S.' Trump also fumed about the CBO in a Friday post on Truth Social, while accusing the office of 'purposefully' underscoring economic growth projections of his tax cuts. 'The Democrat inspired and 'controlled' Congressional Budget Office (CBO) purposefully gave us an EXTREMELY LOW level of Growth, 1.8 percent over 10 years — how ridiculous and unpatriotic is that!' he wrote on social media. 'I predict we will do 3, 4, or even 5 times the amount they purposefully 'allotted' to us (1.8 percent) and, with just our minimum expected 3 percent growth, we will more than offset our tax cuts (which will, in actuality, cost us no money!),' he wrote. The CBO won't release a final growth projection for the GOP bill until later this week. However, the agency projected earlier this year that real gross domestic product (GDP) would grow at an average rate of 1.8 percent annually over the next decade if current law remains unchanged. The Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) sees the tax provisions in the bill increasing the average annual growth rate of real GDP by 0.03 percentage points, 'from 1.83 percent in the present-law baseline to 1.86 percent, over the 2025-2034 budget window.' The Federal Reserve also has a long-term growth projection for the economy of 1.8 percent. In its latest projection summary released in March, the central bank sees the economy growing by 1.8 percent past 2027, which is the same projection it made in December. Maya MacGuineas, president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, said Monday that the attacks come as no surprise for Capitol Hill watchers. 'They love CBO when it gives them the score they want or it hurts their opponents, and they don't like it when it tells them the hard truths about their own bill,' she said. 'I think relying on CBO and [JCT] for the guidance of what the likely economic effects are is absolutely the right way to proceed,' MacGuineas said. Republicans have long touted Trump's 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act as a key contributor to economic growth, while pointing to higher revenues seen in the years since the bill's passage as evidence of the package's success and that the tax cuts have paid for themselves. But the GOP's 2017 tax law was not, in fact, a significant driver of economic growth and came nowhere close to growing the economy by an amount that would have offset its deficit additions. The law grew the economy by 0.2 percent in 2018, according to the CBO, which was the year following the tax law change when the effects would have been most pronounced. In order to offset its deficit additions, it would have needed to grow the economy by 6.7 percent, according to the Congressional Research Service — more than an order of magnitude larger than what it actually did. The 0.2 percent growth resulting from the 2017 Trump tax cuts measured by the CBO was in line with many other forecasters from the time, most of whom have been spared from the same whipping-boy treatment from Republicans that the CBO has received. Goldman Sachs and the International Monetary Fund each projected 0.3 percent growth, Moody's Analytics projected 0.4 percent growth, Barclays projected 0.5 percent growth and Macroeconomic Advisers projected 0.1 percent growth. Tax specialists and economists are generally dismissive of Republican growth claims. 'Everybody in my profession agrees with me,' Marty Sullivan, chief economist at Tax Analysts, told The Hill back in October. 'Nobody — 99 percent of economists — believes that there's going to be so much growth that it would offset any cost on any of these tax cuts.' 'You hear people saying, 'Wow, after the Trump tax cuts, we had the biggest economic growth in history' — well, we didn't,' he said. The meager additions to economic growth made by the 2017 tax law could be even less in the current law, since most of the main production provisions are not new but simply extensions of what is already in place, tax experts told The Hill. Economic growth effects of tax legislation — sometimes called 'dynamic effects' — are largest when they first appear, giving businesses new money for investment and consumers more money for spending. Over time, the effects of that initial cash infusion abate as new norms are established and additional capital is absorbed into existing production patterns. The debate over dynamic scoring is one of two major accounting controversies involving the bill, the other being whether the bill should be scored from the point of view of current law or current policy. From the perspective of current law, which expires at the end of this year, the tax cuts would add more than $5.5 trillion including interest to the national debt, according to the JCT. Republicans prefer to assume the continuation of their last eight years of policy into the future, which would allow that $5.5 trillion price tag to be ignored and for additional scoring to pertain only to changes made on top of it. More fiscal hawks have raised concern about the potential fiscal impact of the legislation in recent weeks, urging for more aggressive spending cuts to ride alongside the major tax plan. Republicans in the lower chamber have already approved major reforms to Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, along with other programs, that have been estimated to reduce federal spending by more than $1 trillion over the next decade. Hard-line conservatives in both chambers are pushing for the party to slash spending even further, while some Senate Republicans have suggested the scope of the tax piece of the bill could be narrowed amid cost concerns. 'Why didn't Trump's 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act make tax cuts permanent? Because the impact of the tax cuts on debt after 2025 was understood by THEM to be too great,' Rep. Thomas Massie (Ky.), one of only two Republicans to vote against the House bill last month, said in a post on the social platform X on Monday. 'Now they're employing new-math to claim that renewing the tax cuts, without cutting spending, won't impact debt.' Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. 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